Halloween comunication has become an unmissable highlight for brands wishing to increase their visibility. Last year, spending on the holiday in France reached some 300 million euros, marking a 5% increase on the previous year. This trend testifies to the growing enthusiasm of the French for Halloween, with some 40% of them taking an active part in the festivities.
This holiday, once seen as purely commercial, has been transformed into a moment of sharing and conviviality, offering companies the opportunity to connect with their audience in a fun and original way. Brands can reinforce their image by offering engaging and entertaining Halloween experiences.
In this article, we explore the value of gamification in capturing consumers’ attention and actively engaging them. We’ll also share four examples of relevant marketing games to boost your Halloween communication.
Halloween, a key moment to engage your audience with fun mechanisms
Halloween is a strategic moment in an already busy marketing calendar, especially during the crucial fourth half of the year. It’s a time when brands redouble their efforts to capture the attention of an over-solicited public – and that’s precisely where gamification comes in.
The interactive, immersive nature of the game fits perfectly with the fantastic, offbeat world of Halloween. It allows us to create original, engaging and memorable experiences, totally in keeping with the festive atmosphere. Rather than blending into the mass of classic promotional campaigns, brands that rely on playful mechanics succeed in standing out from the crowd and forging a stronger bond with their audience, eager for unique experiences and the rewards on offer.
Gamification also offers great flexibility. It can be used to boost brand awareness, collect qualified data, generate traffic in-store or on an e-commerce site, or stimulate sales via prizes or discount vouchers. In short, it’s a powerful lever for achieving business objectives in the run-up to the festive season.
4 examples of marketing games to boost your Halloween communication
Brands communicating on Halloween can therefore target different strategic objectives, particularly in the run-up to other major commercial holidays such as Black Friday and Christmas. To capitalize on the strategic leverage of gamification, it’s important to clearly identify the results you want to achieve. Based on these key KPIs, companies can then choose the right mechanics to share with their audience and fine-tune their Halloween marketing strategy.
1. Develop your reputation
Halloween is a particularly interesting commercial holiday for brands wishing to reach a wider audience. By surfing the graphic universe of Halloween and offering experiences linked to this special time, they can capture the attention of new audiences and boost their visibility.
Which marketing game to choose?
Score-based modules (such as Flappy or Rattrape tout) are simple, addictive and viral. They are therefore ideal for capturing a wide audience, including users who are not yet familiar with the brand. The gameplay, based on repetition and challenge, encourages sharing and organic distribution, maximizing the brand’s visibility on social networks.
Practical tips
- Offer attractive prizes (e.g. high-tech prizes, gift cards, flagship products) to maximize participation.
- Adapt the design to the world of Halloween: dark backgrounds, pumpkin or bat-shaped obstacles, spooky music.
- Integrate storytelling elements to immerse the user in the party atmosphere.
- Broadcast the campaign on social networks with a dedicated hashtag to encourage virality.
Example : Sowee set up a campaign during Halloween to reinforce its positioning as a Smart Home player, while developing its brand awareness. The operation recruited qualified leads, in particular encouraging newsletter sign-ups. The campaign, supported by a Flappy game in Halloween colors, also played a key role in increasing traffic to Sowee.fr.
2. Collect new leads
Halloween communication represents an excellent opportunity to enrich your customer database in a fun, non-intrusive way. Through engaging game mechanics, brands can encourage participants to sign up for their newsletter, give their consent to receive communications (opt-in), or share valuable information about their preferences and purchasing habits.
Which marketing game to choose?
Instant Win is based on the mechanics of chance, with immediate gratification. It’s the perfect way to capture attention quickly and encourage users to share their personal data in a bid to win rewards.
Practical tips:
- Integrate an optimized entry form before revealing whether the player has won.
- Add an animation or visual surprise in the event of a win, to reinforce the positive emotion.
- Set up post-participation email follow-ups to convert the leads collected.
3. Generate traffic
Halloween is also an ideal time to generate traffic, whether in a physical store or on an e-commerce site. Gamified campaigns, playing on curiosity and the desire to win, encourage consumers to visit the point of sale or key pages of the site.
Recommended mechanic: Object hunt
With this mechanic, the player has to find items hidden in a setting, which encourages him to navigate between several pages of a site or explore all the shelves of a physical store.
Practical tips:
- Hide objects on strategic pages of your site to encourage visitors to view them (new products, bestsellers, high-margin categories).
- Provide clues or aids to avoid frustration.
- Couple the operation with a Google Ads campaign or push notifications to maximize traffic.
Gamification idea: A home decoration chain launches a « pumpkin hunt » on its website. Each day, a new pumpkin is hidden in a different product category. Players must find a total of 5 pumpkins to enter the final draw. The game is promoted on Facebook and via the newsletter, with a reward at stake: a complete Halloween decoration to be won.
4. Stimulate sales
The gamification Halloween communication can also enable brands to trigger purchases in a natural and engaging way. By offering exclusive discounts, limited offers or gifts to be won via a marketing game, brands create a sense of urgency and encourage shoppers to go to the checkout or validate a basket.
Recommended mechanics: Wheel of fortune
The Wheel of Fortune ‘s appeal lies in its playfulness and randomness. As well as being easy to use, it can be used to offer discounts or strategic advantages to encourage purchases.
Practical tips:
- Integrate the wheel as a pop-up on the website or in-store via QR code.
- Offer rewards that trigger immediate purchases: discounts, free delivery, 2 for 1, etc.
- Add a time limit to encourage quick purchases (e.g.: the code is valid for 48 hours).
- Segment endowments according to purchasing profile or behavior for greater personalization.
Conclusion
Gamification is the strategic ally for your Halloween communication. It enables your brand to animate its audience by offering immersive experiences perfectly calibrated for this commercial highlight, and to reach the objectives it has set itself for the crucial end-of-year period. Discover our fun mechanisms and engage your audience for Halloween!
